1830 .] 
Notices of Books. 22^ 
X. — Notices of Books . 
Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on - some -of its causes. By 
' Charles Babbage, Esq., Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University of 
Cambridge, arid Member of several Academies. London : B. Fellowes. 1830. 
Here is a work of a novel, and, we may add, fearless character. The author 
is the celebrated inventor of the Calculating Machinery which is now under con- 
struction at the expense of Government, and which has excited so much of the 
attention of the scientilic world. The subject is interesting and important, though 
we should think a ticklish one, supposing the author prepared to do his duty. 
That this author has done so, at least that he has not been prevented doing so by 
any undue consideration for influential personages, will be abundantly evident to 
those who peruse his volume ; and whatever may be his other faults of execution, 
lie cannot be accused of shrinking from the exposure of the many abu-es and 
cabals which are found in England to check the progress of true science, and 
to render coteries and jobs triumphant. The picture which is here drawn of 
the state of English science is melancholy in the extreme, and certainly makes 
the wonder less that we should be so much below the nations of the continent 
in the cultivation of every branch of science. In one point, however, we differ 
from our author: he considers the vile system he has exposed, to be the cause 
of the decline of science : we, on the contrary, are disposed to think that 
science must already have been at a miserably low ebb in any country where 
such things “ can be, and not o’ercome us as a summer cloud with special 
wonder.” Where such things could pass as every-day matters, there science 
must have already declined. 
That the low state of science in England is mainly owing to the system of edu- 
cation, is an opinion we had ventured to give before seeing the present work ; and 
we are glad to see this opinion confirmed by one so much more competent to 
judge. He observes — “ A young man passes from our public schools to the uni- 
versities, ignorant almost of the elements of every branch of useful knowledge; and 
at these latter establishments, formed originally for instructing those who are in- 
tended for the clerical profession, classical and mathematical pursuits are nearly 
the sole objects proposed to the student’s ambition.” The pertinacity with which 
we cling to a system of education established in the dark ages, and for a particular 
class, is indeed characteristic of our nation— as one jealous of innovation and intole- 
rant of change. Vet the many practical evils of our perseverance in so absurd a 
course, generally acknowledged as they are, would seem to be more than sufficient 
warrant for a new experiment. That some improvement must take place sooner or 
later, seems evident, but in the mean time we have lost ground in the race* and have 
allowed ourselves to be outstripped by all the world, even by that scion from our 
stock, America 1 . 
It is a consequence, it appears to us, of the little attention paid to science in Eng- 
land, that, unlike the other countries of Europe, it has no separate class or profes- 
sion, devoting itself to the exclusive cultivation of science. All our scientific charac- 
ters belong to other professions, o nr which they depend for their provision, their 
scientific labours being occasional and desultory. One consequence of this state of 
things must be, that owing to the claims on their time made by their profession, few 
of the investigations they engage in can be pursued to a satisfactory issue — nor is it 
scarcely possible that they should ever attain excellence while their attention is thus 
divided. A second consequence is, that there is wanting that stimulus of profes- 
sional rivalry which would often prompt to great discoveries, and equally that 
wholesome supervision exercised by a profession over all its members, which, giving 
to each man the credit which he is justly entitled to, is as certain to reward merit 
as it is to mark deficiency. If a man ignorant of law and lawyers wish to employ 
the first counsel, let him enquire to whom the profession generally look up, 
aud he is not likely to be disappointed in his choice. So also in other professions 
or distinct classes, in which an esprit de corps seems to give every, even the lowest, 
member a sort of interest and pride in the success aud efficiency of the highest. 
But scientific men in England have no esprit de corps — the consequence is, they 
are divided into coteries, parties, cabals. The interests of science are thus lost 
in the squabbles and party differences of individuals, and the result is every way 
mischievous. It is not the least evil of this state of things, that no union of 
effort, or concert of aim, can be expected from them. 
1 Mr. Babbage mentions, tkat th e first translation into our language of that grand 
work, the Mecanique Celeste , has just arrived from America. 
